Expenses

Greg Duncan · Mar 20, 2021

How much realistically
Can you live on ?

Crystalhead · Mar 20, 2021

Most can live on 20,000 pesos a month if you own a place with a Filipina Wife. You may not be in a full comfort zone or happy go lucky 24-7.. but you can survive, eat well, have an air-con and kick back with some cold beer! I myself spend on average 45,000 a month and live way up in happy villa!!!!!

If you need medical back up and are renting.... kick that up to 40-50 thousand pesos!

I own three homes and a 7500 sq-m Farm with Chickens, Goats, Ducks, Turkey,
Lumboy, Bananas, Coconuts, Hardwoods, Incubator operation and breeding top line fighting Cocks, Chines Chickens and Lohmann Layers....... Think it has all cost me about, 99.000 Canadian dollars. Never been happier and never been easier!

Minimum would be 20,ooo IMHO 570, dollars Canadian......... American....... about 3 quarters of that. You need serious dollars expectancy... IMHO 15,000 usa

cabb · Mar 20, 2021

Here is an older post and things rarely get cheaper.
https://dumagueteinfo.com/board/threads/cost-of-living-in-the-philippines.7720/#post-7721

Here is a more recent poll about monthly expenses.
https://dumagueteinfo.com/board/threads/monthly-expenses.33354/

Things like this have been talked about multiple times. You might try doing searching using the search field in the upper right.

RR_biker · Mar 21, 2021

Crystalhead said: ↑

If you need medical back up and are renting.... kick that up to 40-50 thousand pesos!
Click to expand...

More realistic might be 60-70 thousand peso. Unless a nippa hut is fine, no 4 wheels of your own and more that kind of things.

ozelink · Mar 21, 2021

Agree with the 60 to 70000 would hate to try live on 20 you could do it but that ain't living that's existing.

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Rye83 · Mar 21, 2021

My monthly expenses are usually between $1,200-$2,200 USD per month and I live pretty well: Car, motorcycles, eating/drinking out regularly, regular day trips to resorts and such, traveling around the country (before this covid nonsense), imported and high quality foods, gym memberships, rental house with a pool, visa stays current, etc.

Monthly expenses are one thing, you must be prepared for emergency and unexpected expenses because they will eventually happen. If you come with only enough to pay for bills and entertainment, living paycheck to paycheck with no significant savings, you will probably sink and be begging friends for money (that will likely never be paid back, destroying these friendships and any reputation that had been built up) within the first year or two. It happens all the time, so much so that, personally, I largely avoid any personal interactions with the expat community here. The topic of money, investing in some scheme or local business, and/or hardships related to the lack of having money has came up with most expats I have had regular interactions with.

So yes, someone could live off of $500/month...until a $50k+ USD hospital bill or other expensive treatment is needed to keep them alive.

SkipJack · Mar 21, 2021

Rye83 said: ↑

My monthly expenses are usually between $1,200-$2,200 USD per month and I live pretty well: Car, motorcycles, eating/drinking out regularly, regular day trips to resorts and such, traveling around the country (before this covid nonsense), imported and high quality foods, gym memberships, rental house with a pool, visa stays current, etc.

Monthly expenses are one thing, you must be prepared for emergency and unexpected expenses because they will eventually happen. If you come with only enough to pay for bills and entertainment, living paycheck to paycheck with no significant savings, you will probably sink and be begging friends for money (that will likely never be paid back, destroying these friendships and any reputation that had been built up) within the first year or two. It happens all the time, so much so that, personally, I largely avoid any personal interactions with the expat community here. The topic of money, investing in some scheme or local business, and/or hardships related to the lack of having money has came up with most expats I have had regular interactions with.

So yes, someone could live off of $500/month...until a $50k+ USD hospital bill or other expensive treatment is needed to keep them alive.
Click to expand...

I would add that you can live on this much in any low rent area of the USA and have all of the benefits of living in the USA including the social safety net. Much better food value in the USA.

I would not come here with the only pretense to save money.

foobar · Mar 21, 2021

You can live decently on something like P40K a month if you own your property, more like P60K if you're renting. But don't even think about moving here unless you have at least P2M in savings (after you've bought house, car, furniture, etc). If you get sick you'll need it.

Notmyrealname · Mar 22, 2021

foobar said: ↑

You can live decently on something like P40K a month if you own your property, more like P60K if you're renting. But don't even think about moving here unless you have at least P2M in savings (after you've bought house, car, furniture, etc). If you get sick you'll need it.
Click to expand...

Is there a thinking process which makes poor people think they can live well in a poor country? I note that many good posts here contradict that notion.

okiebound · Mar 23, 2021

My experience was, we lived comfortably on 60,00-100,00 php per month. My husband was very ill and this did allow for meds, dr. visits, hospitalizations. Our daughter was in school and there were many expenses related to that. I personally wouldn't want to even try to live there with less income than that, although I am sure it can be, and it is, done by others. For me, I wouldn't consider it for less than the 60,000 php.

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